From exam to real life – how to train to become a CTA

In addition to the significant career boost, there are several other reasons to learn how to design secure, high-performance technical solutions on the Salesforce Platform in the same way it's expected from a CTA. During the review board exam, you are expected to perform certain activities and think in a particular way. This should not be thought of as activities required to pass the exam but more of best practices that an architect is expected to follow in order to produce a solution that delivers value and has fewer implementation risks.

Regardless of whether you are targeting the CTA credential or not, as an architect, you will find that you can apply the knowledge in this book to your day-to-day activities. Actually, the best way to get hands-on experience with all the required domain knowledge is by following these simple steps:

1. Apply the methodology explained in this book – or your own variation of it – to your day-to-day activities. Put it in action, and you will notice that it becomes second nature after some time. This makes it easier to set and pass the review board exam. Let's put it this way: if you are practicing this day in and day out, you will be actually preparing for the review board exam during your normal working hours.
2. Set up playground environments to try things out by hand. As an architect, it is crucial to have practical experience with the different elements and technologies that form your solution. This is particularly true while working with the Salesforce Platform, considering all the flexibility it has and how it lets you easily sign up for a virtually unlimited number of developer environments. Nothing beats hands-on experience. So, the next time you are investigating how a particular Single Sign-On (SSO) flow works, don't just read about it: set up a playground environment and closely observe how the systems are interacting with each other. Make this one of your day-to-day activities while assessing different potential solutions for a given business challenge.
3. Make yourself familiar with the activity of documenting design decisions. While working on a Salesforce implementation project, you will come across endless cases where there is more than one potential solution. Make yourself familiar with the structured way of documenting the details of each option, as well as its pros and cons. This activity has several benefits in that it helps you organize your thoughts by putting them on paper and sharing them with others. This increases the potential of selecting the right solution/approach. Moreover, it helps you clearly communicate the different options that are available to the project's architecture board and stakeholders. And on top of that, it helps you document your solution – something that your project sponsor will love you for. This is another example of a daily activity that can significantly help you prepare for the review board. Although you might not document the different solutions and tradeoffs in the same thorough way you do in real life, the principle of identifying different approaches, trade-offs, compromises, risks, and rationally justifying a particular solution is exactly what you are expected to do during the review board.

These are not skills that you should learn and master just for the sake of passing the review board; these are valuable skills and practices that you should make part of your daily routine. And when you do so, you will find out that you are getting closer and closer to becoming ready for the review board exam. The CTA certificate will simply become the cherry on top of the cake, an assertion that you possess all the required skills and that you know how to put them all into action.